Moral Compass

 

“Without a moral compass the human mind will justify anything.” Mehrnaz Bassiri Mehrnaz's story is at the end of today's message copied from Mehrnaz Bassiri - Vancouver's award winning keynote and motivational speaker My thoughts: I used to think I had a Moral Compass. I used to think I was a kind, good, peace loving, generous person who cared about other people and about nature and the environment.  I have learned that I was a coward with a very self serving Moral Compass. The kind of Moral Compass that made it okay for me to state my opinions on everything from my perch of relative security and comfort free from oppression and taking for granted Canada's publicly funded health care, education, social supports, infrastructure, justice system, disaster relief, military, old age security. Taking for granted the accessibility of natural resources like fresh water, forests and mountains that, until recently, have buffered us from severe weather and temperature extremes.  Taking for granted the opportunity to do what I want, say what I want and go where I want. The kind of Moral Compass, that allowed me to determine who I voted for based on how it would serve me, my family, my livelihood, my right to protect my hard earned and invested money, and my right to safely squirrel away some amount that would equal whatever would feel like financial security for my future. I cringe for that entitled and self-virtuous feeling I used to justify.  We accumulate a moral compass by osmosis as we grow up from our family, friends, environment and other influences. School, society and religion can also give us some moral framework but, although they help, they have some self serving agendas at their source.  This is not a Moral Compass. Our Moral Compass is influenced by all of the above, but is a lot more work to find. It comes from challenging what we believe and questioning why we believe it. To recognize where our 'moral compass' is self serving and self perpetuating. To realize when we say "that's just the way it is" that we are the ones responsible for "the way it is".  Paradoxically a strong Moral Compass makes accepting many things more difficult, yet it gives us a meaning to our life that is more fulfilling and alive than  anything else. Despite feeling like quicksand it is the only solid ground possible in this life. "Courage is that powerful force which enables us to overcome obstacles, to fight for what’s right, to serve others, to drive change—and, ultimately, to become who we were truly meant to be." Ryan Holiday Cheers Jeanne Action: Although I have not finished my course in philanthropy and charitable giving I have researched this organization with the resources I have so far and have donated. I cannot articulate why Haiti when there are so many other children and people in the world that need help, but it is calling me and this I can do so I am. https://haiti-earthquake-response.raisely.com/ MEHRNAZ’S STORY Mehrnaz grew up in Iran and, as a girl, faced crushing sexism and cultural repressiveness. She remembers being an eight-year-old already aware that her society equated her body with shame. “Being a girl is hard in Iran, and being a tomboy is worse…I remember feeling embarrassed that I had done something wrong, though I didn’t know what.” This experience taught Mehrnaz the importance of strong female role models in every young girl’s life. Through her work she inspires and empowers women to use the power of incremental progress to become leaders in their professional and personal lives. As a child, Mehrnaz was a first generation immigrant twice—first to Japan and later to Canada. She understands the enormous gifts that come from having the privilege to intimately experience another culture—and the grinding struggle to overcome being an outsider. Her immigrant identity has taught her that regardless of where we live and what language we speak, our desire for creating a better future for ourselves and those we love is universal. Mehrnaz equips her audience with the tools and strategies to overcome obstacles and achieve progress towards their dream life. Mehrnaz had a rare, debilitating condition called selective mutism that took away her ability to speak for much of her childhood and youth. Undiagnosed, as an 11-year old who had almost lost hope that functioning in the world was possible for her, she became determined to overcome her disorder at all costs. Mehrnaz launched a lonely campaign of incremental efforts and experimentation that eventually led her to reclaim her voice. It was the first of many experiences that showed her how small actions can lead to extraordinary results. A couple of decades later, she challenged herself to finally dominate her selective mutism by becoming a public speaker–and succeeded. “I want to inspire and empower every person, regardless of their gender, race, orientation, educational background or upbringing to discover how deliberate and continuous small, constructive actions can lead to a better, more fulfilling life.” —Mehrnaz Bassiri Mehrnaz knows the suffering that comes from poverty, and how the quiet shame and the physical and emotional exhaustion of constant income insecurity strains family relationships and erodes dignity. As new Canadians, her family went from having a breadwinner who’s highly advanced career provided for a comfortable life to having two parents with precarious employment struggling to meet basic needs. Seeing her parents doggedly eke out a livelihood under unfavourable circumstances and gradually re-establish their financial security taught Mehrnaz that success is often incremental and slow. Rarely do we go from nothing to having everything overnight. The key to success is adopting the right mindset to keep showing up and making progress. Mehrnaz understands how intolerance causes many LGBTQ+ people to conceal or distort their real selves, and the pain this creates. She spent many years hiding in the closet, leading a double life. Like so many others, Mehrnaz undertook the hard and courageous work of finding a way to live her life openly and authentically. She discovered that it is embracing our difference that makes us truly happy. Developing the confidence to expose our vulnerability helps us develop real strength. And becoming indifferent to the reactions of others makes us truly free. Mehrnaz successfully made the kind of dramatic career change that many people dream about but don’t follow through on. As an accomplished science graduate with an enviable early start in the biotech industry, Mehrnaz experienced the harm that comes from being on a career trajectory offering status and money but that is all wrong for you—and feeling like there is no way out. Mehrnaz taught herself to pursue her authentic aspirations by using her systematic science training to problem-solve her way out of her predicament. She ended up foregoing status and money to “follow her bliss” and found out that the old saying is true: do what you love and the money will follow. Mehrnaz and her family experienced systemic racism when discriminatory bureaucratic practices delayed her mother’s potentially life-saving bone marrow transplant. As a Canadian citizen Merhnaz is grateful for her positive experiences in one of the best countries on earth, but she also takes on the responsibility to speak truthfully about the discrepancy between high-minded government rhetoric surrounding citizens’ rights and the second-class treatment her mother received from the Canadian government when her life hung in the balance. Mehrnaz recognizes that this kind of double standard has been, and continues to be, experienced by Indigenous peoples, people of colour, and first-generation immigrants. She believes that stories have the power to bring us closer together, unite us against discrimination, and move us towards a more equitable future. Mehrnaz was forced to develop a high level of resilience when she faced the double challenge of being an inexperienced start-up business owner during the most challenging period of her personal life. The lessons she learned on how to save her business and pull through emotionally while she was running her new company from her mother’s hospital bedside have stayed with Mehrnaz ever since. And today she teaches others how to build their resilience to overcome their own professional and personal challenges. Mehrnaz has discovered that self-awareness is the single most essential component for living a fulfilled life and pursuing goals that truly lead to happiness, instead of just success. Whether it’s raising your math score, achieving a promotion, accomplishing a business milestone, improving your time management—or even your relationships—the most powerful starting point will always be an honest investigation into yourself. Your definition of happiness. Your definition of success. Your definition of who you are. And that requires you to know your story. Mehrnaz has and continues to delve into her own story. She shares it for the sake of others looking for inspiration to do the same. 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Cause and Effect

 “Thought is Cause; experience is Effect. If you don’t like the effects in your life, you have to change the nature of your thinking.”

Marianne Williamson, Return to Love

“When we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better, too.”
Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist

My thoughts on the nature of my thinking:
I am better today than I was yesterday because... everyday there are opportunities to be a better me and all I have to do is to change the nature of my thinking. It is that easy and yet harder than hard to do. 

Today I get to make doing mundane chores a delightful experience, which makes better use of my time than rushing through them feeling resentful because the list of busy things I need to do is consuming my thoughts. I can choose to make doing any chore a conscious activity that I am going to be the best at in that moment and take pleasure in the results. This feels like kindergarten level change in nature of thinking, a worthy and practical place to practice.

When I read the news I get to choose how I think about it. Today I get to think about the individuals and groups I read about as people. That all of these people came into this life as infants immediately catapulted into vastly different environments, circumstances and with different influences and, just like me, all these people are doing the best they can given the nature of their thinking. I can choose not to think about how wrong I thing they are and the negative direction I think humanity and the world is heading. If I'm having trouble seeing where I can learn something from people and activities I think are completely wrong, then my desire to be right is stronger than my desire to learn. Recognizing this leads me to an opportunity to become more of the person I wish to be. This seems like university level change, but its my choice there are no rules.

Action this week:  

To wash up my dishes by hand for a week. I do not know whether this is the most effective for electricity consumption, but it seems to me that the household appliances originally touted as conveniences have become necessities and, rather than wondering when someone is going to invent a dishwasher that will unload itself, I'd like to take the time to recognize and be appreciative of what it does... and I'm going to take pride in doing the dishes to the best of my ability because what is the point in doing something I don't take pride in.

I'm calling this action: Putting my energy into being grateful for things I take for granted.

Cheers

Jeanne

Power to the People, We need more Janis Joplin

 “If I hold back, I’m no good. I’m no good. I’d rather be good sometimes, than holding back all the time.”

Janis Joplin

If you give nothing then whatever you get is worth nothing in return, but that doesn't mean it is free.

Janis is one of my hero's, someone who died because she couldn't live with the compromise that was expected of her. How many of us are dying inside because we don't hear our own song let alone belt it our at the top of our voice?

In our world there are a lot of empty promises, a lot of bullshit disguised as 'the way it is', a lot of meaningless stuff that costs a lot and meaningful stuff that no one wants to spend time and resources to cultivate ...

Power to the People: Let's sing our songs and celebrate our diversity!

“It’s not what isn’t, it’s what you wish was that makes unhappiness.” 

Janis Joplin

“I’m just doing what I wanted to and what feels right and not settling for bullshit and it worked. How can they be mad at that?”

Janis Joplin

“It’s hard to be free but when it works, it’s worth it!” 

Janis Joplin

“Don’t compromise yourself. You are all you’ve got.”

Janis Joplin

Conscious living action:

There are some great alternatives to the disposable paper and single use plastic products we use daily. I've been working on switching to reusable materials for clean up and storage in my kitchen. A friend, through what I consider one of the best gifts in the world, gifted me some reusable paper towels a couple of years ago and I haven't had paper paper towels in my kitchen since! 

Reusable paper towels made from natural fibers that are machine washable and compostable are excellent alternative to single use paper towels. They are super absorbent and leave no residue. I use different ones in my kitchen, bathroom, and for general cleaning. They are great for windows and mirrors, and now that Arthur is starting to eat in the high chair I have even more uses for them!! You can find them lots of places now, many stores with eco living sections carry them. I've been ordering them online at a Quebec company along with other great eco products https://en.Kliin.co

Cheers
Jeanne

Excellence is a habit

 “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” 

Aristotle

"You don’t set out to build a wall. You don't say ‘I’m going to build the biggest, baddest, greatest wall that’s ever been built.’ You don’t start there. You say, ‘I’m going to lay this brick as perfectly as a brick can be laid.’ You do that every single day. And soon you have a wall.”"
Will Smith

"It's the repetition of affirmations that leads to belief. And once that belief becomes a deep conviction, things begin to happen."

Muhammad Ali

Bricks and punches, habits and affirmations ... Excellence, great walls and super stars...

Not so difficult really, all we have to do is repeat whatever it is we want to accomplish or be everyday. Like yoga or playing harmonica, painting or learning a language, standing on one foot or standing on your head the limit is imagination not time. Like keeping positive, meditating, slowing down or being kinder ... 

The one thing I know is that not starting is the best way to run out of time!

Cheers

Jeanne

Notes on the weekly action challenge:

From last week: Where does our recycling go after the truck picks up our blue box?? And how much of it actually gets recycled/how efficient is the program?

The biggest obstacle and the largest cost of recycling is what we put in our blue bin and contaminated material. Putting material that does not belong in our recycling boxes means more time and energy sorting which results in higher costs to the municipality/taxpayer and can also jam up the automated separator systems. Everything to be recycled needs to be cleaned. Anything with food or food residue on it is contaminated and either cannot be used or results in lower quality end material. 

Pizza boxes and food contaminated cardboard and paper products cannot be recycled.

Most municipalities in Ontario have "single stream recycling". Everything recyclable goes into the blue bin (Compost is separate) and is taken to a transfer station where it is loaded onto different truck and taken to a Materials Recovery Facility. There it is sorted using a series of technologies to separate the materials, they are "baled" and sold to 'recyclers' who make new products from the recovered material. This article talks about the current state of Canada's recycling programs.

Reduce, reuse, recycle, rejected: Why Canada’s recycling industry is in crisis mode - The Globe and Mail

From first week: Look at energy use in my house and unplug things when they are not being used.

Now that I've unplugged most things electronics, stopped using google home, and turning off my devices that use wifi (except when I'm actually using them) I kinda wish I hadn't got rid of my cd collection (the hard drive I stored them on dropped and I'm not sure if I saved them in the clouds I'd really want to use that anyways) and I also am going to see about finding an old radio I can listen to CBC on. I understand that internet searches use energy, and I wonder what the comparison would be between the old plug in versions of music players and streaming?? 

It is getting more habitual to unplug and turn off in the evening. It is still weird thinking about it though after being connected 24/7 for so long. What if a catastrophe happened and I didn't find out until the morning? I'd probably deal with it better after a good sleep, and I will turn on if there is a chance of forest fires in the area. Maybe time to get a land line again??? I'm pondering still... 

Everything has an impact and I want to be clear on what I'm doing and why to make my impact a conscious one ... as much as I can

This week action from the recycling: See where I generate garbage/recycling, sort and clean and take the stack of old batteries and old electronics (sadly no radio) to a battery/electronic recycling place... and also look into ways to encourage companies to reduce packaging.

No to Good

 “People think focus means saying yes to the thing you’ve got to focus on. But that’s not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are. You have to pick carefully. I’m actually as proud of the things we haven’t done as the things I have done. Innovation is saying no to 1,000 things.” Steve Jobs

“The ability to say no is a tremendous advantage for an investor.” Warren Buffett

This morning I was looking for quotes about what we were saying Yes to when we say No... or maybe it was the other way around, regardless, neither of these quotes was what I was looking for, but both say exactly what I mean...

I'd like to get one thing out in the open, I don't think it was well hidden, but I want this to be perfectly clear: My "No" muscle is very flaccid! 

There are countless times, close to infinite, over my life that I said yes to something without thinking it through, and ended up stressed, overwhelmed, running around doing a half assed job of everything and feeling resentful. Many of the things I say yes to are very important to me, they are things I feel very strongly about like family, friendships, volunteering, and living up to my values. Yet, now I am realizing how counterproductive this is, how saying "yes" has become a habit that is standing in the way of me making the best investment in my life, this one short life I have to live. I am realizing that keeping busy doing all these important things is an excuse for me not doing the work of letting my deeper energy surface and put my focus on something that will make me feel a sense of accomplishment and pride rather than exhausted and not disappointed in myself, but not fulfilled either. I'm not sure how I'm going to change, how I'm going to selectively choose to say no to some things because I want to do everything! But being a Superwoman is not the work that gives my life meaning, I want to find my purpose!

It's a pretty cool statement that Steve Jobs makes, to be proud of the good things they didn't do. It takes a lot of discipline to do that, and even more it takes a sense of direction to know where you are going in the first place.

Steve Jobs and Warren Buffett both had very clearly defined and iterated reasons for how they made choices. They made their choices because they knew who they were and what was important to them and followed that purpose, with what their heart and gut told them was important.

This is an excerpt from an opinion piece in the Toronto Star by  Emmanuel Adegboyega on June 29th:

I would like to leave you with some words of encouragement from one of my mentors, Dr. Myles Munroe. He once said that the greatest tragedy in life is not death, but instead it is a life lived without purpose. He also once said that the graveyard is the wealthiest place on earth. You might ask, why is that? Well, a graveyard is where you find Best Selling books that were not published, award winning songs that were not written, drama pieces that were not acted, ideas that weren’t given expression, multimillion dollar businesses that weren’t started, leaders that were not established, and more severely, dreams that weren’t fulfilled; simply because many died without discovering their purpose.

Last week I talked about a challenge I would take on each week (and this is for real something that is part of my purpose lol): 

This week's challenge is something I've been meaning to do for a long time! To look into what really happens with our municipal recycling and what I need to do to make it work. It is too easy for me to feel good about separating what I throw out and trust that it is being recycled, composted etc, but when I see everything being thrown together in the truck that picks it up I wonder how that happens. I don't believe that 'faith in the system' is taking responsibility for what happens to the garbage I create.

Cheers
Jeanne

Avoiding reality and avoiding responsibility gives away our freedom

 

“We can evade reality, but we cannot evade the consequences of evading reality”
Ayn Rand

“Liberty may be endangered by the abuses of liberty as well as by the abuses of power.”
James Madison

The more freedom we have, the more responsibility we have. Period!!

Paradoxically when we have freedom and liberty we absolve religion and government and even corporations from responsibility. Our freedom to choose means that they can be as corrupt and greedy and unfair as they want and take no responsibility because we, the people, have given them the power. 

The more I think about it, the stronger the answer resounds in my head; we have choices whether we think we do or not. Complaining is a choice we make that gives away our power. There are other actions we can take at any time... they just aren't comfortable. They likely mean we need to give up a luxury we've been accustomed to, or some of our precious time here and there, and we may end up having really difficult conversations with ourselves and others, even alienating some people we care about because this kind of change is threatening to the status quo and resistance to new thinking is a powerful force which gets stronger and more entrenched when we feel we are right and close our minds to the possibility of anything else. (such as resistance to believing the earth is round and revolves around the sun, or resistance to believing that human activity is causing or at the very least accelerating climate change)

I think we have grown so accustomed to compromising real value for what we think we want that it has become habit to overconsume, to believe that we are not hurting anyone when we are blind to institutional injustice and bullying, when we ignore the rights of other people if they interfere with what we want, and to complain that things are shitty but do nothing because it is easier to think that we are helpless to make a difference, but...

Sadly I'm coming to the conclusion that ignorance is not an excuse because if we have freedom we are ultimately responsible for the actions of those we vote for, otherwise that freedom is just a word. This, I think, is part of what constitutes the abuse of liberty... basically we want our freedom but have cherry picked our version of freedom to mean our freedom to determine our personal achievements and rewards and let "someone else" take care of our collective home; the earth, and all the inhabitants that share it.

The truth is, no one of us can be free until everybody is free. 

Maya Angelou

Beyond the basic necessities of food and water (and billions of people do not even have these) there is nothing that is so important we are justified in not taking responsibility for its impact. 

Instead of focusing on our own comfort and continually sweeping the uncomfortable issues under the carpet, it is time we take some steps to bring the awkward and uncomfortable truth to the table and take action to address the issues.... If we don't make changes soon this "comfort" that we take for granted now will become a thing of the past. 

I'm not advocating going totally radical in one day, although I think that would be exhilarating and bring many of us to a place of feeling more alive and powerful than we have ever experienced in anything else we've done.

It is time though to evaluate what is really important... things like what kind of world are our children and our grandchildren going to live in. What kinds of "freedom" are going to be left to them

I hear people say we have no power but we have all the power. It is our dollars that purchase the goods, use the land and resources. Our dollars that own the corporations and us as shareholders and investors that are complicit in their activities. We have a wake up call to get our heads out of the sand and deal with the mess we are now while we still have a semblance of freedom. 

This may sound like a negative message and I promised positive so here's the really great part:

We have the power now if we can get out of our own way and use it responsibly! WE are determining the future by our choices; how liberating is that!!

Any little action compounds over time, ripples and multiplies like a smile:-)

I will make a new action each week that I will take and tell you as an example and I challenge you to take actions yourselves as we are all responsible people.

Starting pretty simple here... Going to look at the energy that is wasted in my house. Having appliances connected everywhere may not use much energy but imagine how many homes there are with things running in the background that we hardly ever use. My microwave is basically a clock on my counter because I use it so rarely, I just unplugged it. I'm going to turn off and unplug this computer as soon as I finish this message that has taken me all day and a lot of personal brain energy. 

If this seems like too little a gesture not worth your time I suggest unplugging the internet, turning off wireless routers and Alexa's and Google homes when we go out or go to bed. Maybe even trying a week without using them I wonder what would happen to us ... 

Thanks to all who read this whole thing.

Till next week

Jeanne

And it is us that owns the corporations that force people to work in atrocious conditions, use child labour and cause wars for the precious resources needed to feed our voracious appetites for disposable luxuries. If we even own a share or belong to an organization that owns a share in a company that commits these crimes against the earth and humanity then we are responsible. That is what our freedom means

We are getting a wake up call to address the rampant waste, destruction and injustice before it turns around and consumes us with violence and vengeance. There is no saying we're sorry, no second chance and we are doing this to ourselves so there isn't any excuse.

Canada Day 2021

 Happy Canada Day,

A day to celebrate the beauty of this land and a day to recognize that the foundations our country is built are not solid. 

Time to reflect on a year past. What a year! The Covid pandemic and the coming to the surface of  irrefutable evidence of the indigenous genocides perpetrated by our ancestors there does not seem much to celebrate. 

And yet there are gifts in this we are given an opportunity to mourn and recognize that we did not earn the gifts of this land we appreciate when we celebrate. Bullies do not 'earn' the rights they gain by overpowering and subjugating their victims. It is very clear that our ancestors who came here to escape bullies and persecution from their home countries became the persecutors and bullies in their new country. We need to take this in, there is no recompense that we can make, the only way forward is to do the work and to try to walk a new path that listens with the heart and acts with humility, respect and love. Forgiveness is the only way past our guilt and we are the only ones who can do that.

Our Indigenous people are continually sharing their stories with us and when we start to really listen we will discover their gifts. The wisdom and stature of these stories make our focus on material wealth and conformity to narrow views on what we should want and be seem not only trivial, but a waste of the potential of being human.

"According to the story, long ago, a messenger sent to see how the Neshnabék were living, discovered that the Neshnabék were living their life in a negative way, which impacted their thoughts, decisions, and actions. Some had hate for others, displayed disrespectful actions, were afraid, told lies, and cheated. Others revealed pride or were full of shame. During his journey, the messenger came across a child. This child was chosen to be taught by the Seven Grandfathers to live a good life. He was taught the lessons of Love, Respect, Bravery, Truth, Honesty, Humility, and Wisdom.

Before departing from the Seven Grandfathers, they told him, “Each of these teachings must be used with the rest. You cannot have Wisdom without Love, Respect, Bravery, Honesty, Humility, and Truth. You cannot be Honest if you are only using one of the other teachings. To leave out one teaching would be embracing the opposite of what the teaching means.” The Seven Grandfathers each instructed the child with a principle. It was then up to the child to forget them, or to put them to use."

Seven Grandfather Teachings | NHBP (nhbp-nsn.gov)
 


“And then there was the sad sign that a young woman working at a Tim Hortons in Lethbridge, Alberta, taped to the drive-through window in 2007. It read, “No Drunk Natives.”

Accusations of racism erupted, Tim Hortons assured everyone that their coffee shops were not centres for bigotry, but what was most interesting was the public response. For as many people who called in to radio shows or wrote letters to the Lethbridge Herald to voice their outrage over the sign, there were almost as many who expressed their support for the sentiment. The young woman who posted the sign said it had just been a joke.

Now, I’ll be the first to say that drunks are a problem. But I lived in Lethbridge for ten years, and I can tell you with as much neutrality as I can muster that there were many more White drunks stumbling out of the bars on Friday and Saturday nights than there were Native drunks. It’s just that in North America, White drunks tend to be invisible, whereas people of colour who drink to excess are not.

Actually, White drunks are not just invisible, they can also be amusing. Remember how much fun it was to watch Dean Martin, Red Skelton, W. C. Fields, John Wayne, John Barrymore, Ernie Kovacs, James Stewart, and Marilyn Monroe play drunks on the screen and sometimes in real life? Or Jodie Marsh, Paris Hilton, Cheryl Tweedy, Britney Spears, and the late Anna Nicole Smith, just to mention a few from my daughter’s generation. And let’s not forget some of our politicians and persons of power who control the fates of nations: Winston Churchill, John A. Macdonald, Boris Yeltsin, George Bush, Daniel Patrick Moynihan. Hard drinkers, every one.

The somewhat uncomfortable point I’m making is that we don’t seem to mind our White drunks.

They’re no big deal so long as they’re not driving. But if they are driving drunk, as have Canada’s coffee king Tim Horton, the ex-premier of Alberta Ralph Klein, actors Kiefer Sutherland and Mel Gibson, Super Bowl star Lawyer Milloy, or the Toronto Maple Leafs’ Mark Bell, we just hope that they don’t hurt themselves. Or others.

More to the point, they get to make their mistakes as individuals and not as representatives of an entire race.”
― Thomas King, The Inconvenient Indian: A Curious Account of Native People in North America

Cheers
Jeanne

angel

“The world is full of angels; if you can’t find one, be one.
Matshona Dhliwayo

“The world is already full of critics; to stand out, be an encourager.”
Matshona Dhliwayo   

Maybe it is time for us to start becoming what we want for ourselves.

Not enough to be encouraging to those we love,

not enough to be an angel to those we care for,

We must go beyond ourselves to be an angel to someone we fear.

Judas couldn't live with himself

Money is temporary and meaningless compared to our value of ourself

We only learn what we had when it is gone, exchanging what we value to accumulate money is the greatest waste

And we become wasted living in wilderness when we bury what we value to conform to conformity

The pain we inflict and harm we cause to ourselves and others is great learning 

only through humility can we take in the lessons and stop making the same mistakes over and over and over again.

Caterpillars

 Regard Heaven as your father, Earth as your Mother and all things as your Brothers and Sisters.

Tribe Unknown

”All things in the world are two. In our minds we are two, good and evil. With our eyes we see two things, things that are fair and things that are ugly…. We have the right hand that strikes and makes for evil, and we have the left hand full of kindness, near the heart. One foot may lead us to an evil way, the other foot may lead us to a good. So are all things two, all two.” 

Eagle Chief (Letakos-Lesa) Pawnee

In the space of two weeks I've watched the gypsy moth caterpillars devour the green from the giant oaks, the cheer from the birch trees, the rich colour from the purple beech and the shimmer from the quaking aspen. I put up barricades of tape and burlap, only to find hours later hoards more are clambering over those unfortunates who got trapped on the way and the tree base is teaming with creatures that have one thing on their mind; to satisfy their hunger. This single minded purpose makes it hard to think of them as my brothers and sisters.

And yet, perhaps they are a mirror to many things ... greed is their nature. They consume til they cocoon, a moth emerges, eggs are laid and generations continue blindly following the pattern until - Yikes - a Virus attacks and they are vanquished for a period of years until the virus itself runs out of easy food and its numbers fade (they still lurk about though) and the gypsy moths rise again.

If this were told from the tree's perspective; it would read similar to the biblical seven years of feast before the famine story. They have several years to gain reserves of energy to withstand the next surge of these glutinous predators. Although, of course, trees have many other predators to protect against which makes their story infinitely more complicated.

If we told this story from the perspective of the undergrowth in the forest; they could be grateful to the caterpillars for allowing them some sunlight to grow and maybe establish themselves to be a next generation of trees and food for caterpillars. (and yes the "invasive species" also would have light to grow, good/evil coexist everywhere.)

 

With all our brain power, intellect and imagination humans could potentially rise above this instinct. Signs of this are hard to detect in the news, but individuals and small communities are proving it possible to care for and support each other. 

I wonder if this is the virus that will allow enough sunshine through for these sapling groups to gain stature and withstand the caterpillars... 

Or will we need to wait until the next one??

Good and evil exist everywhere in everything. Judgement is dependent on perspective and is only possible when we turn a blind eye to what is in ourselves. Knowing this does not make staying out of judgement easy...it is hard not to judge people harshly where we see cruelty, unconscious waste and people denying other's rights in favour their own.  But everyone has an inner world and can justify their reasons for what they do ...  as I do when in my efforts to save the little trees on the lawn I pick off gypsy moth caterpillars and drown them in soapy water...

Perhaps that is the ultimate question; where does good end and evil begin?

Cheers

Jeanne

Fear - the Trap

 "To avoid a fear emboldens it" 

Sue Monk Kidd, The Book of Longings

”Of all the liars in the world, sometimes the worst are our own fears.”

Rudyard Kipling

“It is far harder to kill a phantom than a reality.”

Virginia Woolf, The Death of the Moth and Other Essays

A journey of fear. 

Fear can immerse us so deeply that we cannot see anything beyond. The only way to escape fear is to go towards it and hold it up to the sun. Ignoring it, hiding it, fighting it, all serve to make fear stronger and give it more power. 

The story we make about ourselves as a victim serves to mask our common humanity. The more we hurt, the more we fear hurt, the more we blame, shame and hurt others in futile attempts to show our strength. Paradoxically our strength comes from humility, acceptance and respecting all things. 

Cheers

Jeanne

Dragons are Princesses

 “.....what we believe becomes what we do. “

Steven Charleston, Ladder to the Light: An Indigenous Elder’s Meditations on Hope and Courage (Broadleaf: 2021), 60–61, 67.

"Thank you Davis for sending me this quote. In the context of everything that is happening right now I wonder how many of us know what we believe to the extent that we are aware of what we do??? By this I mean that until we have a set of values that we believe strongly enough to bring our every action up to the light and judge it on our beliefs then we are hiding from ourselves and perpetuating our own myth of being "good" whatever that might look like. Over generations we "north american middle class" have slipped into a complacency of entitlement that is only possible to reconcile our beliefs to if we don't shine a light below the surface. In all our doing good works for charities, donating money, being tolerant, even feeling empathy we do not look inside ourselves to see our culpability in the injustices happening everywhere. 

“Perhaps all the dragons in our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us act, just once, with beauty and courage. 

Perhaps everything that frightens us is, in its deepest essence, something helpless that wants our love.”
Rainer Maria Rilke

Whew, imagine?? 

All the fire breathing dragons we fear just want to be loved. 

All the prickly shelled people and all the arrogance and cruelty of humankind caused by longing to be loved, and when that longing is combined with a deep fear of not being worthy we assume unloveable traits so no one will see we are vulnerable to heartbreak.

Most everyone wants love, only most everyone doesn't accept that to get real love they need to give real love and open themselves to heartache. There are no guarantees, only rewards beyond one's imagination. 

“Love and kindness are never wasted. They always make a difference. They bless the one who receives them, and they bless you, the giver.”
Barbara De Angelis

"For beautiful eyes, look for the good in others; for beautiful lips, speak only words of kindness; and for poise, walk with the knowledge that you are never alone."
Audrey Hepburn

Cheers
Jeanne

“The historical irony is that European Christians coming to the Americas were escaping highly stratified and intolerant societies; in North America they encountered societies that were open and tolerant; but in response, these European immigrants simply duplicated the oppression they had known by practicing it on the Native People.”
Steven Charleston, Coming Full Circle: Constructing Native Christian Theology

“Above all, don't lie to yourself. The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to a point that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others. And having no respect he ceases to love.”
— Fyodor Dostoevsky

Cheers

Jeanne

Tigers

 There is nothing like the thrill of walking through the jungle looking for a tiger and knowing they could be watching you already.

Ashlan Gorse Cousteau

You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something - your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

Steve Jobs

I claim that all those who think they can cherry-pick science simply don't understand how science works. That's what I claim. And if they did, they'd be less prone to just assert that somehow scientists are clueless.

Neil deGrasse Tyson

I always knew looking back on my tears would bring me laughter, but I never knew looking back on my laughter would make me cry.

Cat Stevens

A story of life through quotes: 

There are tigers everywhere!!  When we go boldly forth into the jungle of taking steps into our dreams our journey is exciting and alive and we get to have adventures and learn and grow. 

OR 

We can choose to only go/believe take the road that we think is safe, on the flat earth, with guns in our hand so we can destroy tigers before we see them and never learn that these tigers are just like us ... they are all the other human animals afraid to go beyond their carefully walled in limits and beliefs because of their fears of us ... like an endless game where everyone ends up dead except the victors and the world is a decimated shell containing a only a small minded group who cry for the past they destroyed ... just before they die of boredom or start killing each other because, after all that battle for a homogenous race, religion and culture, someone in the dared to have a different thought which was interpreted as a tiger.

And because my intention is positive this is only a cautionary tale and the first 2 quotes are the places we can go to overcome our limits and limiting beliefs.

Cheers
Jeanne

Life Flows on within you and without you

 When you've seen beyond yourself, then you may find, peace of mind is waiting there.

George Harrison

From: Sgt Peppers lonely hearts club band

Within You Without You

We were talking about the space between us all
And the people who hide themselves behind a wall of illusion
Never glimpse the truth
Then it's far too late
When they pass away
We were talking about the love we all could share
When we find it, to try our best to hold it there with our love
With our love, we could save the world, if they only knew

Try to realise it's all within yourself
No one else can make you change
And to see you're really only very small
And life flows on within you and without you

We were talking about the love that's gone so cold
And the people who gain the world and lose their soul
They don't know
They can't see
Are you one of them?

When you've seen beyond yourself then you may find
Peace of mind is waiting there
And the time will come when you see we're all one
And life flows on within you and without you

Cheers
Jeanne

More on Freedom

 “One of the things I learned when I was negotiating was that until I changed myself, I could not change others.”

Nelson Mandela

“May your choices reflect your hopes, not your fears.”
Nelson Mandela

"Freedom" is a word I hear frequently in these days of lockdowns and restrictions due to the spread of the Covid virus. Many of us who've not had to deal with much in the way of personal restrictions before are having a difficult time accepting these restrictions and feel our Individual Rights are of ultimate importance. Opportunities we've taken for granted; jobs, school, social gatherings, our rights to move about and travel freely have been limited. 

Some of the books I've read recently such as Nelson Mandela's book "Long Walk to Freedom", Thomas King's "Indians on Vacation" and Susan Straight's "I Been in Sorrow's Kitchen and Licked out all the Pots" are making me think about what this word "Freedom" means. 

I'm wondering how to be free if freedom means we require a set of external conditions... 

and if those external conditions are met for me and not the rest of humankind who and what am I that I deserve them and how free am I really??

I am grateful for this opportunity to read and learn and continue to think beyond what I thought before. Thinking about what my "hopes" are and making choices reflecting these hopes means I get to give up wishing to go back to the past "freedoms", which my mind has already idealized and even were I to go back I am not the same person ... What a Relief!!! 

FREEDOM vs freedom

 "Where do you begin telling someone their world is not the only one?"

Lee Maracle

"Words are sacred, once spoken they cannot be retrieved. Sometimes they fall out of the mouth in moments of thoughtlessness when the speaker focuses on images which don’t include the one spoken to, and burn holes in the lives of the listener.” 

from Ravensong by Lee Maracle

“Find free­dom in the con­text you inherit”
Lee Mar­a­cle (Stó:lō)

We are offered great gifts from writers and people who are speaking up from all cultures, beliefs, tribes, and world experiences that are different from ours. It is probably easier for us to imagine living on Mars than it is to understand their reality. This last quote reminds me of Victor Frankl's speaking about life in the Nazi concentration camps 

When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.

Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.

Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.

And why do I choose these quotes week after week?? What is in me that I choose the books and the stories I do? I wonder this, why I am I sitting here feeling helpless to "do" anything, when I have so much freedom? Is this one of those tragic paradoxes... that those of us who have freedom and opportunity become possessive of that freedom ... feel we deserve it? I think somehow we are trapped in a conditioned box that does not allow us to see no one is truly free until everyone is free. And our real freedom only comes when the risks we take challenge us to grow out of our safety zones of that "freedom we deserve". That inherent belief inside us that we are "good" people and have no responsibility to look deeper into our complicity and responsibility for the oppression of others, for the destruction and imbalance of opportunity and freedom. We say we are in the helpless against government and corporate greed, corruption and wasteful mismanagement when, in fact, they represent us. The only way things will ever change is if we change ourselves and it takes one step at a time as our eyes open. It is easy to get bogged down in the enormity of change that is needed, but once one tiny changes start happening miracles can follow.

Lee Maracle


Lee Maracle, of Salish and Cree ancestry, a member of the Sto:loh Nation, was born in North Vancouver, B.C. She is the mother of four and grandmother of four.

Maracle was one of the first Aboriginal people to be published in the early 1970s, and she is now one of the most highly published First Nations writers in Canada. She is an award-winning poet, novelist, performance storyteller, scriptwriter, actor and keeper/mythmaker among the Sto:lo People.

Maracle was recently award the Order of Canada "For her contributions to Canada's literary landscape and for her influential voice in cultural relations between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples in Canada."

Kindness reminder

 “Just because an animal is large, it doesn’t mean he doesn’t want kindness; however big Tigger seems to be, remember that he wants as much kindness as Roo.” —Winnie-the-Pooh

Cheers

Jeanne

Pitter Patter Little Hobbit

 “Go back?" he thought. "No good at all! Go sideways? Impossible! Go forward? Only thing to do! On we go!" So up he got, and trotted along with his little sword held in front of him and one hand feeling the wall, and his heart all of a patter and a pitter.”

― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit, or There and Back Again

I am finally reading The Hobbit, listening to it actually. What a story and what a lot of life lessons to be found in it! This one reminds me of how alive I feel when I choose to go forward:-)

“There is more in you of good than you know, child of the kindly West. Some courage and some wisdom, blended in measure. If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit, or There and Back Again

Cheers

Jeanne

Aspire

 ...you cannot value dreams according to the odds of their coming true. The real value is in stirring within us the will to aspire.

Sonia Sotomayer

Whew!! I just spent a few minutes reading about Sonia Sotomayer; US Supreme Court Justice, who is the embodiment of this quote. As I reflect on my own dreams I realize I've accomplished many of them through aspiration, belief and hard work, but there are still some wandering around in my head that I've procrastinated on for years. This quote is making me think there is a reason for this procrastination. My dreams that didn't materialize were those that had no tenure inside me, no real grip on me other than wishful thinking. Which reminds me of more words of wisdom from my mom: "Wishful thinking never made anything happen" Now that I can frame my dreams through the lens of this quote it may be easier for me to leave off wishful thinking and stick to dreams that stir me ... or at least recognize the difference.

Here is the Goodreads synopsis of her autobiographical book

My Beloved World

by 

Sonia Sotomayor

 4.05  ·   Rating details ·  29,570 ratings  ·  3,567 reviews

The first Latinx (Puerto Rican) and third woman appointed to the US Supreme Court, Sonia Sotomayor has become an instant American icon. Now, with a candor and intimacy never undertaken by a sitting Justice, she recounts her life from a Bronx housing project to the federal bench, a journey that offers an inspiring testament to her own extraordinary determination and the power of believing in oneself.

Here is the story of a precarious childhood, with an alcoholic father (who would die when she was 9) and a devoted but overburdened mother, and of the refuge a little girl took from the turmoil at home with her passionately spirited paternal grandmother. But it was when she was diagnosed with juvenile diabetes that the precocious Sonia recognized she must ultimately depend on herself. She would learn to give herself the insulin shots she needed to survive and soon imagined a path to a different life.

With only television characters for her professional role models, and little understanding of what was involved, she determined to become a lawyer, a dream that would sustain her on an unlikely course, from valedictorian of her high school class to the highest honors at Princeton, Yale Law School, the New York County District Attorney’s office, private practice, and appointment to the Federal District Court before the age of 40.

She speaks with warmth and candor about her invaluable mentors, a failed marriage, and the modern version of extended family she has created from cherished friends and their children. Through her still-astonished eyes, America’s infinite possibilities are envisioned anew in this warm and honest book, destined to become a classic of self-invention and self-discovery. (less)

And if you have a chance here is a link to learning more about her

Sonia Sotomayor - C-SPAN — Google Arts & Culture

Cheers

Jeanne

In Fairness

 "There is a fundamental question we all have to face. How are we to live our lives; by what principles and moral values will we be guided and inspired?"

H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

"Live so that when your children think of fairness and integrity, they think of you." 

H. Jackson Brown, Jr., American Author

In Ontario we are facing 4 more weeks of Stay at Home emergency orders starting today. Regardless of how we feel emotionally, or how wrong we think this tactic is to deal with the third wave of increasing spread of COVID infections, our government has imposed this "order" upon us; the citizens of Ontario (and  presumably most places have experienced similar restrictions imposed on them) These are "dictated orders" and as such can be enforced by  fines, and possibly by shaming and other means if we do not conform or "obey". (I'm not dealing in this message with the guilt I presume most of us would feel if tby not following this "order"  they happened to spread this disease or become really sick themselves)

This sounds straightforward ... but ... in this musing message I'm going over a dilemna I've been pondering for this last year which is about the decision making process we take to rationalize our actions and choices. When I say "our" I'm referring to those of us who have resources, opportunity and a conditioned belief, to some degree, in the rights of the individual to self determine how they live their life. 

The inspiration for today's quote resulted from a choice I had to make regarding this stay at home "order" that came into effect at midnight last night. Today I had scheduled a last day of hiking an hour north of here that I needed to do to complete a section of the Bruce Trail, a personal goal I had been working toward all winter. And after today's hike I planned to stay home and work in the garden, on the farm, do some writing, hike locally, you get the picture ... maybe... my choice is do I, for just one day, let myself blur of the meaning of the "order". There were lots of ways I could justify doing this hike, it followed most of the guidelines, and it would have less chance of contracting or spreading the disease than going to the grocery store or walking in a park. There was very little chance that I would get fined unless there was a complaint, the area is remote and the trees and frogs and snakes and wildlife that are awaking in the forest didn't seem to pay me much mind. But, there was a niggle inside. I found I was explaining to myself why it was okay for me to do this. My darn thoughts went to how lucky I am to even have this opportunity in non "order" times. 

Thoughts about barging through doors that close may mean doors that might have opened and other opportunities that might have been would never show up  began to seep into my thoughts. My mind was spinning and I couldn't sleep. Rolling through my head were things I justify like speeding, and things I can't justify like not composting and recycling. The question kept being how do I make these choices?? After a couple hours of sleepless spinning I gave up and listened to a talk on youtube, which usually helps me doze off, but the talk was dead on for my thoughts last night. 

The Answer to my question startled me into wide awakeness! I have an Ethical Rudder!! It is mine and it guides only me (you all have your own and it is your choice what you do with it) This guiding rudder is based on my experience, beliefs, conscience, environment, childhood, and education. It is the gut feeling that tells me what to do. The niggle!! And if I out justify the niggle, what I'm doing is weakening my Ethical Rudder. And if I continue to educate myself, and listen to my gut, listen to the world beyond me, read, learn, and hike in the forest and nuture my Ethical Rudder it can evolve. Ah hah moment, door opening, opportunity to grow, whoo hoo! 

So I'm going to hike local today, I feeds my soul, the niggle is gone and I'll be able to complete my Bruce Trail goal when the forest is awake and the world will send me more messages to share lol

Cheers

Jeanne

The Youtube video on IQ2 was Daniel Goleman on Focus: The Secret to High Performance and Fulfillment

Bonus Quote:

"Let the refining and improving of your own life keep you so busy that you have little time to criticize others."
H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

About H.Jackson Brown Jr.

Wikipedia

Brown was born in 1940, in Middle Tennessee. Before becoming a writer, he acted as a creative director of an advertising agency in Nashville. He graduated from Emory University in 1962 and was a member of Sigma Chi fraternity.^[5] In 1991 he was honored as a "Significant Sig", an award given by the organization to its notable members.^[5]

Brown first published A Father's Book of Wisdom, which was quickly followed by P.S. I Love You, a collection of sayings and observations from his father and mother. The latter contains the famous quote on travel (see below) which is often misquoted^[6] as having been said by Mark Twain. Both were very popular and led to Life's Little Instruction Book, which was originally written as a going-away present for his college-bound son, Adam.^[7] This book contained 511 reminders about "how to live a happy and rewarding life" and became a best-seller worldwide. It has logged more than two years on the New York Times best-seller list, including more than a year at the number one spot. Life's Little Instruction Book was the first book to ever occupy the number one spot on the New York Times best-seller list in both paperback and hardback formats simultaneously. Live and Learn and Pass It On followed and also became a New York Times best-seller. "Live and Learn and Pass It On," was co-authored with his wife Rosemary C. Brown, who is herself an author with books like Rosemary Brown's Big Kitchen Instruction Book.

Brown's books have been translated into 35 languages. They have spawned calendars, posters, apparel items, daily journals, greeting cards, audiocassettes, screensavers and fortune cookies.

Cheers
Jeanne